Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.
Taking Whiteness Personally: Learning to Teach Testimonial Reading and Writing in the College Literature Classroom Brenda Daly Although aware of an emerging specialty called “whiteness studies,” I did not begin to study my own white history until I read Jane Davis’s The White Image in the Black Mind: A Study of African American Literature (2000). While reading Davis’s book, whiteness became a personal issue for me, not only because Jane is a colleague and friend, but also because I was shaken by her answer to the question, “What is a white person?” She explains that in the black mind—that is, in the mind of African American writers—white people are “weak,” “a burden to blacks,” “dismissive,” “off -putting, even when friendly,” “ignorant of blacks’ having fi gured them out,” and “afraid to confront their own bigotry” (133–36). After reading three pages of this cata- log of descriptors, I felt my anger growing: Why should I listen, I wondered, while someone tears down my hard-won self-esteem? Why should I heed someone who tells me that I am “in need of self-analysis,” that I am “repul- sively, self-denigratingly, and self-congratulatorily disrespectful,” “jealous,” “corrupted by power,” “self-aggrandizingly sexist,” “presumptuous,” “self- righteously dangerous,” “confused,”
Pedagogy – Duke University Press
Published: Apr 1, 2005
Read and print from thousands of top scholarly journals.
Already have an account? Log in
Bookmark this article. You can see your Bookmarks on your DeepDyve Library.
To save an article, log in first, or sign up for a DeepDyve account if you don’t already have one.
Copy and paste the desired citation format or use the link below to download a file formatted for EndNote
Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
All DeepDyve websites use cookies to improve your online experience. They were placed on your computer when you launched this website. You can change your cookie settings through your browser.